by Azra Raza
Cancer has occupied my intellectual and professional life for half a century now. Despite all the heartfelt investments in trying to find better solutions, I am still treating acute myeloid leukemia patients with the same two drugs I was using in 1977. It is a devastating, demoralizing reality I must live with on a daily basis as my entire clinical practice consists of leukemia patients or leukemia’s precursor state, pre-leukemia. My colleagues, treating other and more common cancers, are no better off. I obsess over what I have done wrong and what the field is doing wrong collectively.
Other articles in the series:
Part 2: The First Cell, Part 2: Transposed Heads
Part 3: The First Cell, Part 3: Force Majeure — Oncologists Are As Desperate As Their Patients
Part 4: The First Cell, Part 4: Giant Cells: “I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes”
part 5: The First Cell, Part 5: The Secret Sharer: Hybrid Cancer Cells